Parts of N.J. declared a disaster area; Christie urges Congress not to hold up aid [video]

Governor Christie said Wednesday that New Jersey needs disaster relief now, and the public’s suffering should not be fodder for Washington political battles that could erupt when Congress returns from its summer recess.

“We don’t have time to wait for folks in Congress to figure out how they want to offset this stuff with the budget cuts. … Nobody was talking about off-setting budget cuts in Joplin," Christie said at a news conference in Lincoln Park, referring to relief for victims of a deadly tornado in Missouri in May.

While he left himself some wiggle room by saying Congress could “figure out the budget cuts later,” Christie’s statement puts one of the Republican Party’s newly minted stars at odds with Tea Party and conservative lawmakers in Congress, including Rep. Scott Garrett of Wantage.

They have said that with record deficits any additional disaster relief has to be offset by spending cuts. That requirement, also voiced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., creates the possibility that relief could be delayed if the Democratically controlled Senate rejects offsetting cuts.

President Obama declared New Jersey a disaster area on Wednesday afternoon, making affected residents and business owners in Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic, and Somerset counties eligible for a variety of federal grants and loans to cover uninsured losses.

People can being applying Thursday by calling 800-621-3362 or using the website www.disasterassistance.gov

The president’s declaration also said federal relief could also be provided to repair public works such as roads, pipelines and bridges in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem counties. A spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency said more counties could be added later for both kinds of relief.

FEMA had about $900 million in its disaster relief fund before Hurricane Irene hit. On Monday, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said the balance was about $800 million, and the agency had temporarily put some construction projects approved at past disaster sites on hold.

Congress has a long history of approving relief for major disasters such as hurricanes through emergency spending bills rather than the normal budget process. Indeed, $110 billion of the $130 billion in disaster funds provided over the past two decades were approved as emergencies, The Associated Press reported.

This year, House Republican leaders accused President Obama of trying to conceal the amount of deficit spending in his budget by not providing FEMA with enough money. Obama had requested $1.8 billion for the 2012 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, while FEMA spent four times that amount in the prior year.

A 2012 funding bill for FEMA approved by the House in June increased the disaster fund by cutting $1 billion from a loan program for fuel-efficient vehicles and $850 million from homeland security grants for states, counties and municipalities.

The Senate did not act on that bill, and could take up disaster funding within weeks without providing any offsetting cuts, according to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, vice chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds FEMA.

Christie appeared in Lincoln Park with several members of the state congressional delegation, including Lautenberg and Rep. Rodney Frelinghysen, R-Harding, a member of the subcommittee that wrote the FEMA spending bill with the spending offsets.

“We need the support now here in New Jersey, and that’s not a Republican or a Democratic issue,” Christie said.

“So, I would urge all my colleagues in the New Jersey delegation, doesn’t matter which party you are in, and all the rest of the folks in Congress. … I don’t want to hear about the fact that offsetting budget cuts have to come first, before New Jersey citizens are taken care of.”

Frelinghuysen did not address the offsets when he spoke, but Lautenberg, D-N.J., jumped on the governor’s remarks.

“We are going to fight like hell against those that want to cut back FEMA’s funding,’’ Lautenberg said.